1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to cellular telephone systems, and in particular, to a method of implementing cellular "800" service.
2. Description of Related Art
Cellular telephones are as easily used as home telephones. Cellular telephones combine the mobility of the radio link and the world-wide land telephone network to provide a communication link to any other telephone in the world. However, the cellular telephone system has not progressed as far as the land telephone network in the services provided to customers. One major shortcoming is the lack of cellular "800" service.
One problem for existing cellular systems with regard to providing cellular 800 service is the billing of a land-based Third Party Advertiser (TPA). Currently, when a cellular user dials such a TPA, the cellular user is billed for associated air-time usage charges. A typical cellular billing system only allows the billing of actual cellular numbers for air-time usage of both incoming and outgoing calls. The charges that the cellular customer incurs cannot be charged instead to the TPA that the customer is dialing. Yet, under the cellular 800 service, the TPA and not the cellular user should be billed for the air-time usage during the period the cellular user is connected to the TPA.
Another problem for existing cellular systems with regard to providing cellular 800 service is that existing cellular switches are limited by the capacity of "translation tables" within the switch as to the number of unique 800 numbers that they can hold. This means that cellular 800 service would be available to only a limited number of TPAs. However, with the growing use of cellular systems, cellular 800 service has broad appeal and could result in thousands of potential TPAs.